_PONG_ is one of the earliest arcade video games and the first sports
arcade video game. It is a table tennis sports game featuring simple
two-dimensional graphics . While other arcade video games such as
_
Computer Space _ came before it, _Pong_ was one of the first video
games to reach mainstream popularity. The game was originally
manufactured by
Atari , which released it in 1972. Allan Alcorn
created _Pong_ as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari
co-founder
Nolan Bushnell . Bushnell based the idea on an electronic
ping-pong game included in the
Magnavox Odyssey , which later resulted
in a lawsuit against Atari. Surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work,
Bushnell and
Atari co-founder Ted Dabney decided to manufacture the
game.

_Pong_ quickly became a success and is the first commercially
successful arcade video game machine, which helped to establish the
video game industry along with the first home console, the Magnavox
Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing
games that copied _Pong_'s gameplay, and eventually released new types
of games. As a result,
Atari encouraged its staff to produce more
innovative games. The company released several sequels that built upon
the original's gameplay by adding new features. During the 1975
Christmas season,
Atari released a home version of _Pong_ exclusively
through Sears retail stores. It was also a commercial success and led
to numerous copies. The game has been remade on numerous home and
portable platforms following its release. _Pong_ has been referenced
and parodied in multiple television shows and video games, and has
been a part of several video game and cultural exhibitions.

The two paddles return the ball back and forth. The score is
kept by the numbers (0 and 1) at the top of the screen.

_Pong_ is a two-dimensional sports game that simulates table tennis .
The player controls an in-game paddle by moving it vertically across
the left side of the screen, and can compete against either a
computer-controlled opponent or another player controlling a second
paddle on the opposing side. Players use the paddles to hit a ball
back and forth. The aim is for each player to reach eleven points
before the opponent; points are earned when one fails to return the
ball to the other.

DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY

See also: Origin of
Atari Inc. _
Atari engineer Allan Alcorn
designed and built Pong_ as a training exercise.

_Pong_ was the first game developed by
Atari . After producing
_
Computer Space _, Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more
games by licensing ideas to other companies. The first contract was
with
Bally Manufacturing Corporation for a driving game. Soon after
the founding, Bushnell hired
Allan Alcorn because of his experience
with electrical engineering and computer science; Bushnell and Dabney
also had previously worked with him at
Ampex . Prior to working at
Atari, Alcorn had no experience with video games. To acclimate Alcorn
to creating games, Bushnell gave him a project secretly meant to be a
warm-up exercise. Bushnell told Alcorn that he had a contract with
General Electric for a product, and asked Alcorn to create a simple
game with one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping.
In 2011, Bushnell stated that the game was inspired by previous
versions of electronic tennis he had played before; Bushnell played a
version on a
PDP-1 computer in 1964 while attending college. However,
Alcorn has claimed it was in direct response to Bushnell's viewing of
the
Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game. In May 1972, Bushnell had visited
the
Magnavox Profit Caravan in
Burlingame, California where he played
the
Magnavox Odyssey demonstration, specifically the table tennis
game. Though he thought the game lacked quality, seeing it prompted
Bushnell to assign the project to Alcorn.

Alcorn first examined Bushnell's schematics for _Computer Space_, but
found them to be illegible. He went on to create his own designs based
on his knowledge of transistor–transistor logic and Bushnell's game.
Feeling the basic game was too boring, Alcorn added features to give
the game more appeal. He divided the paddle into eight segments to
change the ball's angle of return. For example, the center segments
return the ball a 90° angle in relation to the paddle, while the
outer segments return the ball at smaller angles. He also made the
ball accelerate the longer it remained in play; missing the ball reset
the speed. Another feature was that the in-game paddles were unable
to reach the top of screen. This was caused by a simple circuit that
had an inherent defect. Instead of dedicating time to fixing the
defect, Alcorn decided it gave the game more difficulty and helped
limit the time the game could be played; he imagined two skilled
players being able to play forever otherwise.

Three months into development, Bushnell told Alcorn he wanted the
game to feature realistic sound effects and a roaring crowd. Dabney
wanted the game to "boo" and "hiss" when a player lost a round. Alcorn
had limited space available for the necessary electronics and was
unaware of how to create such sounds with digital circuits . After
inspecting the sync generator , he discovered that it could generate
different tones and used those for the game's sound effects. To
construct the prototype, Alcorn purchased a $75 Hitachi
black-and-white television set from a local store, placed it into a
4-foot (1.2 m) wooden cabinet , and soldered the wires into boards to
create the necessary circuitry. The prototype impressed Bushnell and
Dabney so much that they felt it could be a profitable product and
decided to test its marketability. The
Pong prototype that was
used in the tavern.

In August 1972, Bushnell and Alcorn installed the _Pong_ prototype at
a local bar, Andy Capp's Tavern. They selected the bar
because of their good working relation with the bar's manager, Bill
Gattis;
Atari supplied pinball machines to Gattis. Bushnell and
Alcorn placed the prototype on one of the tables near the other
entertainment machines: a jukebox, pinball machines, and _Computer
Space_. The game was well received the first night and its popularity
continued to grow over the next one and a half weeks. Bushnell then
went on a business trip to Chicago to demonstrate _Pong_ to executives
at Bally and Midway Manufacturing ; he intended to use _Pong_ to
fulfill his contract with Bally, rather than the driving game. A few
days later, the prototype began exhibiting technical issues and Gattis
contacted Alcorn to fix it. Upon inspecting the machine, Alcorn
discovered that the problem was the coin mechanism was overflowing
with quarters.

After hearing about the game's success, Bushnell decided there would
be more profit for
Atari to manufacture the game rather than license
it, but the interest of Bally and Midway had already been piqued.
Bushnell decided to inform each of the two groups that the other was
uninterested—Bushnell told the Bally executives that the Midway
executives did not want it and vice versa—to preserve the
relationships for future dealings. Upon hearing Bushnell's comment,
the two groups declined his offer. Bushnell had difficulty finding
financial backing for _Pong_; banks viewed it as a variant of pinball,
which at the time the general public associated with the Mafia. Atari
eventually obtained a line of credit from
Wells Fargo that it used to
expand its facilities to house an assembly line. The company
announced _Pong_ on 29 November 1972. Management sought assembly
workers at the local unemployment office, but was unable to keep up
with demand. The first arcade cabinets produced were assembled very
slowly, about ten machines a day, many of which failed quality
testing.
Atari eventually streamlined the process and began producing
the game in greater quantities. By 1973, they began shipping _Pong_
to other countries with the aid of foreign partners.

HOME VERSION

_ Atari's Home Pong_ console, released through Sears in 1975

After the success of _Pong_, Bushnell pushed his employees to create
new products. In 1974,
Atari engineer Harold Lee proposed a home
version of _Pong_ that would connect to a television: _Home Pong_. The
system began development under the codename _Darlene_, named after an
attractive female employee at Atari. Alcorn worked with Lee to develop
the designs and prototype, and based them on the same digital
technology used in their arcade games. The two worked in shifts to
save time and money; Lee worked on the design's logic during the day,
while Alcorn debugged the designs in the evenings. After the designs
were approved, fellow
Atari engineer Bob Brown assisted Alcorn and Lee
in building a prototype. The prototype consisted of a device attached
to a wooden pedestal containing over a hundred wires, which would
eventually be replaced with a single chip designed by Alcorn and Lee;
the chip had yet to be tested and built before the prototype was
constructed. The chip was finished in the latter half of 1974, and
was, at the time, the highest-performing chip used in a consumer
product .

Bushnell and Gene Lipkin, Atari's vice-president of sales, approached
toy and electronic retailers to sell _Home Pong_, but were rejected.
Retailers felt the product was too expensive and would not interest
consumers.
Atari contacted the Sears Sporting Goods department after
noticing a
Magnavox Odyssey advertisement in the sporting goods
section of its catalog.
Atari staff discussed the game with a
representative, Tom Quinn, who expressed enthusiasm and offered the
company an exclusive deal. Believing they could find more favorable
terms elsewhere, Atari's executives declined and continued to pursue
toy retailers. In January 1975,
Atari staff set up a _Home Pong_ booth
at a toy trade fair in
New York City , but was unsuccessful in
soliciting orders due to the fact that they did not know that they
needed a private showing.

While at the show, they met Quinn again, and, a few days later, set
up a meeting with him to obtain a sales order. In order to gain
approval from the Sporting Goods department, Quinn suggested Atari
demonstrate the game to executives in Chicago. Alcorn and Lipkin
traveled to the
Sears Tower and, despite a technical complication in
connection with an antenna on top of the building which broadcast on
the same channel as the game, obtained approval. Bushnell told Quinn
he could produce 75,000 units in time for the Christmas season ;
however, Quinn requested double the amount. Though Bushnell knew Atari
lacked the capacity to manufacture 150,000 units, he agreed. Atari
acquired a new factory through funding obtained by venture capitalist
Don Valentine . Supervised by Jimm Tubb, the factory fulfilled the
Sears order. The first units manufactured were branded with Sears'
"Tele-Games" name.
Atari later released a version under its own brand
in 1976. _ The
Magnavox Odyssey , invented by
Ralph H. Baer ,
inspired Pong_'s development.

LAWSUIT FROM MAGNAVOX

The success of _Pong_ attracted the attention of Ralph Baer , the
inventor of the
Magnavox Odyssey, and his employer, Sanders Associates
. Sanders had an agreement with
Magnavox to handle the Odyssey's
sublicensing, which included dealing with infringement on its
exclusive rights . However,
Magnavox had not pursued legal action
against
Atari and numerous other companies that released _Pong_
clones. Sanders continued to apply pressure, and in April 1974
Magnavox filed suit against Atari, Allied Leisure, Bally Midway and
Chicago Dynamics .
Magnavox argued that
Atari had infringed on Baer's
patents and his concept of electronic ping-pong based on detailed
records Sanders kept of the Odyssey's design process dating back to
1966. Other documents included depositions from witnesses and a signed
guest book that demonstrated Bushnell had played the Odyssey's table
tennis game prior to releasing _Pong_. In response to claims that he
saw the Odyssey, Bushnell later stated that, "The fact is that I
absolutely did see the Odyssey game and I didn't think it was very
clever."

After considering his options, Bushnell decided to settle with
Magnavox out of court. Bushnell's lawyer felt they could win; however,
he estimated legal costs of US$ 1.5 million, which would have exceeded
Atari's funds.
Magnavox offered
Atari an agreement to become a
licensee for US$700,000. Other companies producing "_Pong_
clones"—Atari's competitors—would have to pay royalties. In
addition,
Magnavox would obtain the rights to
Atari products developed
over the next year.
Magnavox continued to pursue legal action
against the other companies, and proceedings began shortly after
Atari's settlement in June 1976. The first case took place at the
district court in Chicago, with Judge John Grady presiding. To
avoid
Magnavox obtaining rights to its products,
Atari decided to
delay the release of its products for a year, and withheld information
from Magnavox's attorneys during visits to
Atari facilities.

IMPACT AND LEGACY

Dedicated
Pong consoles made their way to various countries,
like this Russian Турнир. See also: History of the video game
industry

The _Pong_ arcade games manufactured by
Atari were a great success.
The prototype was well received by Andy Capp's Tavern patrons; people
came to the bar solely to play the game. Following its release,
_Pong_ consistently earned four times more revenue than other
coin-operated machines. Bushnell estimated that the game earned
US$35–40 per day, which he described as nothing he'd ever seen
before in the coin-operated entertainment industry at the time. The
game's earning power resulted in an increase in the number of orders
Atari received. This provided
Atari with a steady source of income;
the company sold the machines at three times the cost of production .
By 1973, the company had filled 2,500 orders, and, at the end of 1974,
sold more than 8,000 units. The arcade cabinets have since become
collector's items with the cocktail-table version being the rarest.
Soon after the game's successful testing at Andy Capp's Tavern, other
companies began visiting the bar to inspect it. Similar games appeared
on the market three months later, produced by companies like Ramtek
and
Nutting Associates .
Atari could do little against the
competitors as they had not initially filed for patents on the solid
state technology used in the game. When the company did file for
patents, complications delayed the process. As a result, the market
consisted primarily of "_Pong_ clones"; author Steven Kent estimated
that
Atari had produced less than a third of the machines. Bushnell
referred to the competitors as "Jackals" because he felt they had an
unfair advantage. His solution to competing against them was to
produce more innovative games and concepts.

_Home Pong_ was an instant success following its limited 1975 release
through Sears; around 150,000 units were sold that holiday season.
The game became Sears' most successful product at the time, which
earned
Atari a Sears Quality Excellence Award. Similar to the arcade
version, several companies released clones to capitalize on the home
console's success, many of which continued to produce new consoles and
video games.
Magnavox re-released their Odyssey system with simplified
hardware and new features, and would later release updated versions.
Coleco entered the video game market with their Telstar console ; it
features three _Pong_ variants and was also succeeded by newer models.
Nintendo released the
Color TV Game 6 in 1977, which plays six
variations of electronic tennis. The next year, it was followed by an
updated version, the
Color TV Game 15, which features fifteen
variations. The systems were Nintendo's entry into the home video game
market and the first to produce themselves—they had previously
licensed the
Magnavox Odyssey. The dedicated _Pong_ consoles and the
numerous clones have since become varying levels of rare; Atari's
_Pong_ consoles are common, while APF Electronics' TV Fun consoles are
moderately rare. Prices among collectors, however, vary with rarity;
the Sears Tele-Games versions are often cheaper than those with the
Atari brand. _ Tele-Games
Pong IV_, Sears' version of _Pong_
sequel (_
Pong Doubles_), was one of the many consoles that flooded the
market by 1977.

Several publications consider _Pong_ the game that launched the video
game industry as a lucrative enterprise.
Video game author David
Ellis sees the game as the cornerstone of the video game industry's
success, and called the arcade game "one of the most historically
significant" titles. Kent attributes the "arcade phenomenon" to
_Pong_ and Atari's games that followed it, and considers the release
of the home version the successful beginning of home video game
consoles . Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton of
Gamasutra referred to
the game's release as the start of a new entertainment medium, and
commented that its simple, intuitive gameplay made it a success.
_
Entertainment Weekly _ named _Pong_ one of the top ten games for the
Atari 2600 in 2013. Many of the companies that produced their own
versions of _Pong_ eventually became well-known within the industry.
Nintendo entered the video game market with clones of _Home Pong_. The
revenue generated from them—each system sold over a million
units—helped the company survive a difficult financial time, and
spurred them to pursue video games further. After seeing the success
of _Pong_,
Konami decided to break into the arcade game market and
released its first title, _Maze_. Its moderate success drove the
company to develop more titles.
Pong has also been used in programming
classrooms to teach the fundamentals of languages such as Java and
C++.

Bushnell felt that _Pong_ was especially significant in its role as a
social lubricant , since it was multiplayer-only and did not require
each player to use more than one hand: "It was very common to have a
girl with a quarter in hand pull a guy off a bar stool and say, 'I'd
like to play _Pong_ and there's nobody to play.' It was a way you
could play games, you were sitting shoulder to shoulder, you could
talk, you could laugh, you could challenge each other ... As you
became better friends, you could put down your beer and hug. You could
put your arm around the person. You could play left-handed if you so
desired. In fact, there are a lot of people who have come up to me
over the years and said, 'I met my wife playing _Pong_,' and that's
kind of a nice thing to have achieved."

SEQUELS AND REMAKES

Bushnell felt the best way to compete against imitators was to create
better products, leading
Atari to produce sequels in the years
followings the original's release: _
Pong Doubles_, _Super Pong_,
_
Ultra Pong _, _Quadrapong_, and _Pin-Pong_. The sequels feature
similar graphics, but include new gameplay elements; for example,
_
Pong Doubles_ allows four players to compete in pairs, while
_Quadrapong_—also released by
Kee Games as _Elimination_—has them
compete against each other in a four way field. Bushnell also
conceptualized a free-to-play version of _Pong_ to entertain children
in a Doctor's office. He initially titled it _
Snoopy Pong_ and
fashioned the cabinet after
Snoopy 's doghouse with the character on
top, but retitled it to _Puppy
Pong _ and altered
Snoopy to a generic
dog to avoid legal action. Bushnell later used the game in his chain
of Chuck E. Cheese\'s restaurants. In 1976,
Atari released
_Breakout _, a single-player variation of _Pong_ where the object of
the game is to remove bricks from a wall by hitting them with a ball.
Like _Pong_, _Breakout_ was followed by numerous clones that copied
the gameplay, such as _
Arkanoid _, _
Alleyway _, and _Break \'Em All _.

Atari remade the game on numerous platforms. In 1977, _Pong_ and
several variants of the game were featured in _
Video Olympics _, one
of the original release titles for the
Atari 2600 . _Pong_ has also
been included in several
Atari compilations on platforms including the
Sega Mega Drive ,
PlayStation Portable ,
Nintendo DS , and personal
computer . Through an agreement with Atari, Bally Gaming and
Systems developed a slot machine version of the game. The Atari
published _
TD Overdrive _ includes _Pong_ as an extra game which is
played during the loading screen. In 1999, the game was remade for
home computers and the
PlayStation with 3D graphics and power-ups .
In 2012,
Atari celebrated the 40th anniversary of
Pong by releasing
Pong World.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The game is featured in episodes of television series: _That \'70s
Show _, _
King of the Hill _, and _
Saturday Night Live _. In 2006,
an
American Express commercial featured
Andy Roddick in a tennis match
against the white, in-game paddle. Other video games have also
referenced and parodied _Pong_; for example _Neuromancer_ for the
Commodore 64 and _Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts _ for the
Xbox 360 .
The concert event
Video Games Live has performed audio from _Pong_ as
part of a special retro "Classic Arcade Medley". Frank Black 's song
"Whatever Happened to Pong?" on the album _
Teenager of the Year _
references the game's elements.

Dutch design studio Buro Vormkrijgers created a _Pong_-themed clock
as a fun project within their offices. After the studio decided to
manufacture it for retail,
Atari took legal action in February 2006.
The two companies eventually reached an agreement in which Buro
Vormkrijgers could produce a limited number under license. In 1999,
French artist
Pierre Huyghe created an installation entitled "Atari
Light", in which two people use handheld gaming devices to play _Pong_
on an illuminated ceiling. The work was shown at the Venice Biennale
in 2001, and the
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León in
2007. The game was included in the
LondonBarbican Art Gallery 's
2002 Game On exhibition meant to showcase the various aspects of video
game history, development, and culture.